Interviewee: Roberto Rodriguez III Interviewer: Mary Manning Date: 6/21/2015 Transcription Conventions: “ . ” after a phrase that is not completed. Repeated words/short phrases and fillers such as “uh”, “um,” and “ah” are usually not transcribed. Pauses and laughter are not noted or transcribed. Mary: [:03] We know it's working because, the numbers are moving. Today is June 21st of 2015. I'm Mary Manning, with The Houston Art's Alliance Folk Life and Traditional Arts Program. I'm in a practice space above the Continental Club in Houston, Texas, interviewing musician Roberto Rodriguez, who's kindly agreed to share his knowledge and experience being a musician who plays Tex Mex, conjunto, cumbia, and other styles of music. Roberto: [:08] Yes. Mary: [:29] For the first question, I'm just ask you to tell me a little bit about learning how to play the accordion. Roberto: [:37] Learning how to play the accordion, it's a very unique instrument. When I came about it, I actually wanted to learn how to play guitar. I asked my parents that I wanted music lessons but, when I was younger, we didn't have money for music lessons so, they just kind of gave me a guitar but, I never learned how to play it. One day, my dad showed up, and he goes, "Hey, tomorrow, you're gonna have a teacher." I was like, "Cool. What am I gonna learn?" He goes, "Accordion.", and I'm like, "What is that?" So, I really didn't know what it was. So, my teacher showed up the next day, just like my dad said, and asked me, "Have I ever played it? Have I ever tried it?" I told him, "No." He goes, "Okay. Well, we'll start from scratch." So, he put it on me, and I had no idea how to work it. It looked like a typewriter to me. That's what everybody used to tell me. [01:35] He showed me my first notes and how to handle it with the technique, and I had no idea what he was talking about. After I held it for about an hour, he stayed with me for two hours the first practice so, we never had rehearsal. Learning it was very difficult in the beginning, because like I said, to me, I didn't see a structure in it. Just like you would sit in front of a piano or have a guitar, you actually saw the structure of how it went. But, with the accordion, there's no ... well, the particular accordion that I play, it's a button diatonic. So, it's just like a harmonica. [02:21] If you could picture somebody playing harmonica, they blow air out and suck air in, and you have two different notes. So, that's exactly what a diatonic button accordion does is, when you pull the bag out, you have one note but, when you push it in, it's another note. So, it took me a while to figure that out and find the structure but, once I found the structure of it, it all became simple. So, there is a structure to playing the button accordion. It's just that you have to sit down, and you'll see there's various accordions that are painted differently, they have different color buttons on the ... there is a button version of the accordion that is chromatic, and it does have buttons, and some of those actually have black and white buttons, just like a piano. So, you'll know, which ones are your sharps, which ones are just your regular keys. But, in the button diatonic, it doesn't matter what color your buttons are, they're just there for decoration. So, that was something I had to learn as well. [03:33] Once I figured that out, I started thinking just like a harmonica player, and the button diatonic, three row, that I perform with, I have three harmonicas in one big giant box. That's the easiest way I explain to people, of how to play the diatonic accordion that I play. It's having three harmonicas, and because I have three harmonicas at once, I get to do full scales, full chords, and get to play a lot of variety because off that. Also, learning the bass side, on the bass side, you're bass buttons, they're also diatonic. You don't have a full range of bass so, you actually have to kind of cheat, I guess is the best way to explain it because, you don't have your full chords when you're trying to do your sevens. You do have majors but, you don't have the full range off it so, whenever you're doing some minors, you sometimes have to cheat, doing the same major chords. [4:45] Which doesn't make sense in music but, as far as playing the diatonic accordion, for us, that's the way we have to play. You'll see that a lot, even with the Cajun Creole zydeco players that play the one row button accordion, which is also diatonic, and that's having just one harmonica. But they have the bass side too, and they only have in and out on the bass. It's just major. It don't matter if they're playing minors or not. So, it takes a while to learn. I teach the accordion so, I've gotten to learn the instrument inside and out. Someone who hasn't, like myself when I started, I had no idea how to do anything on it so, I've kind of like, I think teaching the accordion gives me another perspective on how people view it. I've noticed that once they learn the technique, it usually takes them about a month to get used to holding it, and playing along with it. It's a different instrument to try to tackle but, it's enjoyable. You have so much fun trying to learn it, and it gets you working a lot. Gets your brain working. Mary: [6:01] Tell me more about teaching accordion. Roberto: [6:03] Teaching accordion, that was never my intention at all. That fell into my lap, and that was from my teacher, who sadly, he passed away about three years ago. But, I studied under him about, I think close to 10 years. He was a teacher that, from his upbringing, he learned the traditional oral way of everything being passed down to him so, when he started learning, they taught him how to play accordion, and he kind of like, learned to play on his own. The music part of it, he learned on his own. He really didn't have any proper teaching. With myself, he started teaching me that way but, I actually wanted to understand how music actually worked. I ended up just 2 choosing to take some beginner music courses, music theory courses, and that opened up an entirely new door for me. Because, I was already learning music, but orally, but I didn't understand the function of it so, I actually took the music courses. [07:26] From there, people started asking me, "Can you teach me?" I had never tried it before. I was like, "Well, okay. Let's try it." My teacher always told me that all of his students, he always taught different because, everybody learns different so, I kind of had that in the back of my mind. I ended up starting to teach. That was something I didn't really expect was gonna do anything for me. I guess I'm on my fifth year right now, of teaching, and that's actually what I do during the day is, teach music, teach accordion. It's kind of rewarding because, you get to see some of the kids every week. I have kids ranging from five years old, all the way to about, students in their 60's that are retirees. [08:25] Each one is completely different, and each one learns at a different pace but, I know the feeling of ... the same feeling that I saw through the eyes of my teacher, I understand what he felt when one of your students gets up on stage, and starts performing, and you're the one who taught him all that. They get into it, and it's very rewarding for me. Especially for the younger generation because, a lot of them, I'm trying to teach them a lot of the old, old song. Well, instrumentals and older songs with lyrics that you don't hear anymore. And, I started figuring that out when even some of the parents would bring me their students, they had no idea certain songs that I would ask them about, and they just wouldn't remember. They would say, "Oh, that's probably from my mom's era, or my grandfather's era.", but that type of music was passed down through my teacher, and he was, what? He was in his 60's when he was teaching me. [09:34] So, all of the stuff as his childhood music, he passed onto me so, whenever I perform some of those songs, it's more the older generation that are in their 60's and 70's, that still remember those, and they never heard of them in over 30 years. That brings me a lot of joy because, they ask me, "How'd I learn that? I'm so young, and I shouldn't even know those." But, I tell them I've been listening to roots music since I was young so, I still remember all those songs.